The Ride, Movie Reviews

While I have always felt that God did a good thing by giving us the dreaded ten commandments of the "Thou Shalt Nots," I think it would have behooved him to also add some "Thou Shalts." The reason I feel that the commandments are a good thing is because, even though many people ignore them, they lay some foundation for a little law and order in this world. But to carry this further I feel that some things we need to do should be mentioned. For example, how about, "Thou Shalt Own a Motorcycle(preferably a Hog) and ride on it frequently." My thoughts are to not limit these dos' but any given number but simply right them as I feel them. So, the first commandment concerns the motorcycle riding, since I don't want to get real general and say something like, "Thou shalt have fun all the time," I want to be more specific. Plus, since I believe in a balance of life, having fun all the time would not be balanced. So, there must be a little misery in life to balance things out. After all look at Job, what fun and misery he had in his life and then in the end he had he had lost, threefold. Now to my story to fulfill the first greerman commandment, not to be confused with God. Last Saturday I got up and decided to ride the Hog to Arlington, Texas, approximately 325 miles from Ransom Canyon. The idea was to make the ride, offer my volunteer services to the duathlon, then ride back the next day. While there are actually four routes to the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex, the fastest one in on Interstate 20. But Interstates were not made for Hogs, they were made for giant trucks and family RV's, so I decided to take the scenic routes. The going route was on Highway 114/199, and this took me through the 6666 ranch country, and through the canyons than run 400 miles North and South. What a ride, with 70 mph speed limit, sun out, temperature just right for riding and little traffic. When I went by the four six's(6666) ranch my mind wondered to the story that this massive ranch(over 200,000 acres) was acquired many years ago in a poker game between a bunch of cowhands, over a camp fire. But, the real story is the ranch was purchased by the current owners in an outright purchase deal and their reason to call it four six's is because that is the brand used on the cattle. So, so much for the poker hand myth. Some 6 hours later I enter the city traffic with lots of automobiles, freeways, and delays. But an hour later I am safely in Arlington, talking with the race director and preparing for the race on Sunday. My job was to offer the trailing motorcycle for the last rider on the race course. This was an interesting job, took about 2 hours then I was headed back to West Texas. This time I elected to take the Highway 180 West through oil and ranching country. Turned out to be a very scenic ride and I saw many other riders along the way. They were mostly groupies, but they did wave. After going through Albany, Texas I spotted a guy riding a bicycle on the right shoulder and after passing him I noticed he had aero bars(had to be a triathlete I said to myself). After giving myself about a quarter of a mile ahead of him I pulled over and waited for him. Turns out he was a triathlete and he had done the Buffalo Springs 70.3, not only that it was his favorite race. After some tri talk I scooted on out and let him return to the ride. We were both happy and content to have this discussion, but needed to get back to the business at hand. My turn North would take me through Snyder back into Ransom Canyon. But wait a minute, I now remember I will be going through Post, Texas the home of the infamous JD's Bar and Grill. I have mentioned this little sleazy bar in some other posts, but I had no plans to stop there on this trip. As I went through Post and got to the outskirts of town the Hog took charge and at the first opportunity it made an abrupt u-turn and the next thing I know we are in front of JD's. There were 7 Hogs in the parking lot and when I entered the bar I notice the same ole crowd, made up of Hog riders, oil field workers, cowboys and JD himself sitting at the end of the bar. While I noticed the sign, "old fashion hamburgers," I just went ahead and ordered a draft beer, wet my whistle and continued my journey. By this time there were 12 Hogs in the lot and business was picking up. The remainder of the trip was great and within an hour I was in Ransom Canyon. Over 700 miles total, with great riding.

Movie reviews: "300" ***.5, My local guy gave it one more star above my rating. This was an interesting movie relative to the battles of the mighty Spartans. One thing they did have were plenty of six packs(and I don't mean beer six packs), and they wore military dress that showed them off. My disappointment was that it gave no pre-movie description of the time frame in history the movie was in. The producer just assumed that we would all know that, I guess. I would not pay full ticket price, even though the acting was very good. No one I recognized and my critic didn't even make note of the stars(there weren't any I guess). Lots of blood, some discreet sex, some nudity, but mostly the bravery of the Spartans was the main theme.

"Notes of a Scandal" ****, Watched this on pay television while on the Hog ride. Very good movie about a school teacher who become sexually involved with a 15 year old boy. Need I say more and now you get the title.

greerman